Queen's Diamond Jubilee: Duncan Stubbs Composes New Trumpet Fanfare

A newly written trumpet fanfare to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee has been tailor-made for its performance space - St Paul's Cathedral.

The RAF musicians who performed at the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's wedding will play the piece during a thanksgiving service which will formally commemorate the Queen's 60-year reign.

Wing Commander Duncan Stubbs composed the 50-second tune - given the working title Jubilate - and described how the cathedral's prominent nine-second echo has shaped the work.

The Queen celebrates her Diamond Jubilee this year

The senior officer is the RAF's principal director of music and wrote the fanfare Valiant and Brave for William and Kate's wedding ceremony last year.

He said: "To be honest, to do this is fantastic, I'm delighted.

"A fanfare is just basically a glorified hello - I don't want to diminish it - but the main factor for this one is that St Paul's Cathedral has got a reverberation time, an echo, of nearly nine seconds.

"So anything written specifically for it needs to have a little bit of space. So what I've tried to do, hopefully successfully - we'll see, is add a bit of space in there so the music can be allowed to ring through the cathedral.

"There's an aspect of a peal of bells in there as well, and also because of the echo we've actually mimicked that within the fanfare."

The musicians from the RAF's Central Band fanfare team will perform the piece at St Paul's Cathedral on June 5 in front of the Royal Family and a host of dignitaries.